forgemaster

John if you did'nt live in far nippon queensland I would have offered you a job! Phil

Hey Danger,(is danger your middle name?) its a 7cwt massey Mk1 (means it has a round ram with 2 flats 180 deg opposed, rather than a round ram with 4 flats 90 degrees apart) its hammer that we own No 10, not hammer no 10 in the workshop. I have no real plan to install it it is just a spare for our other 7, (and I really brought it so as I have more hammers than Moonie) and they don't make new masseys any more and there is only so many in Oz so you have to grab what is available when it is offered. (otherwise they tend to get scrapped) Phil

Steel strapping used to strap pallets for transport etc is normmally heated for HT in a lead bath so as it doesnt scale up. Thats the limit of all I know about it. Can find out more if needed,(theres a stapping plant in town that one of my ex apprentices worked at) Phil

Massey No 4 (hammer no 10)

Hey Sam Where abouts in WA, WA's a big place.

So John where is the 30, is it in Aus, on another note just upped the hammer count at forgemasters by 1 yesterday, but its not nice to look at inside, came with about 30 litres of rusty rainwater as a bonus. I'll put up a picky this arvo. Phil

You need to get out more, looks real good though, I was toying with making a steam siren years ago, got all the bits together, just did'n tput in the effort to finish it. your efforts have given me some ideas. Phil

To add to Franks' list, hammering upwards or sidewards, turn the work to suit the direction of hammering, ie use gravity. Don't turn the hammer to suit the work, and work against gravity, gravity is your friend.

Hey John, dags, you will be missed all the best though. Phil

When using balling swages it is a good idea to put some small coal pieces or coal dust in the swages, before putting the job in there and also when you stop, from time to time to empty the scale out, put some more coal in. (helps to stop the job sticking, and also acts like a lubricant) If you are having problems with the end piping you could try cutting the end off with a set of butterfly tools first. Phil

Aden get in touch with Drewy, he lives in Tamworth, and is a trade served blacksmith, talk to him about what you want to do and what you are thinking of getting. You could PM him from here, or look in the phone book, he teaches Ind Arts at a high school further north than tamworth that starts with a U. Phil

Thankyou for giving us your word of experience Patrick I was hoping you would contribute, thankyou. Phil

Bang to the top again.

It always amazes me that regardless the size of the massey, if you rig the slings as done in the photos above they always pick up that close to dead level it isnt worth fighting about up to you. Phil

But it is up to you. (I just love the way the internet is fool proof, just proves I am a fool) ie triple post Phil

It always amazes me that regardless the size of the massey, if you rig the slings as done in the photos above they always pick up that close to dead level it isnt worth fighting about it. I have never used any reo in any of my hammer foundations, all still going good 12 years later. With our 2cwt alldays I put in some self leveling grout of about 2" thick under the anvil before I put the conveyor belt on top of that. Still seems to be going good too. I would recomend the T head bolts, we put in a Davis and Primrose hammer years ago in our workshop, it managed to break off 2 of the hold down bolts, (that werent T bolt,s just 1 1/8" bolts welded to large plates that were submerged into the concrete) never want to have to go through that again, took a fair bit of chipping, threading, swearing, etc all taking place in the dirt on the floor whilst trying to work in a small hole I had made down the side of the broken bolts. The massy foundation book does caution on using concrete of too high a strength, as the higher strenght does not seem to absorb the shock of the hammers blow as well as the lesser strength, leading to increased vibration. On the subject of reo, I was told by a civil engineer, that reo is added to concrete to allow it to form structural forms or members such as bridge beams, slabs, columns etc, for a foundation of a hammer he advised it just has to be a large monolithic block, much the same as a rock, and reo is in his opinion un-necessary. But it is up to you. Phil

John, its a Mark 1 hammer, they had a rotary valve as opposed to the common Massey shuttle valve. If I had to choose a colour I'd say Massey green. Phil

1st of all welcome to IFI Seeing as you are almost halfway there (from my perpective) you should look at attending Hammered at Moonies which is near enough the last week of October in Braidwood. All of us regulars will be there, plus some blowins. Put it in your diary, let Dale know you are coming, turn up. Its as easy as that. Phil

If we could have had 10 minutes with no-one looking we may have been able to load the 2 "letterboxes" onto his truck. And dale we were picking up steel for me, just so happened that there were a couple of hammers along the way. Americans whats not to get, we went looking at hammers I took some photos and posted them in the hammer section. Its not like "it follwed me home", like how does something follow you home unless its a cat dog or horse, a press or hammer or anvil or vise can't follow you, you have to carry it or transport it, it can't wallk, crawl, or fly on its own, I don't get "it followed me home", I reckon that thread should be called, "look at what I got for nothing or close to it and I transported by vechicular means or otherwise to my place of abode or work for very little capital outlay. That would make some sense, not "it follwed me home" I don't get it. Phil (yes guys this was written with my tongue firmly in my cheek, no need to feel offended). Whats time to a pig? As a mate of mine who spends a fair amount of time in the US said, "phil they may look the same as us, but they're not"

The brief was to find the Moon as many hammers (going or not), in the shortest space of time, in one locality, (but we did'nt get to all of them), watch this space Phil

Moonie does have the shirt that says "worlds greatest blacksmith". And yes Moonie is a top guy.

Australia is from another planet, we have egg laying mammals, the seasons are back to front, we drink our beer cold, and we are all upside down to almost all the rest of the planet. Just one word of warning Lee watch out for drop bears, and kangawallerfoxes! Oh yeh and trouser snakes. Phil

I thought, cool, a kid in Maitland after an apprenticeship, going to be looking for a new apprentice in about a month. One problem, wrong Maitland! Phil

Just bringing this back to somewhere we can find it, has anyone started the countdown yet?

I did'nt even weigh in on this one, and I gave up after about half down the page, you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think. Phil